Recordings.

`Waiting To Exhale' Long On Noble Notions

December 21, 1995|By Greg Kot.

Various artists

"Waiting to Exhale" Original Soundtrack (Arista) (star) (star) 1/2

Forget Michael Jackson. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds has been the most dominant songwriter-producer-pop performer in the '90s, and "Waiting to Exhale" is his crowning achievement, a movie and album starring Whitney Houston. Babyface spent a good deal of his last concert tour playing the perfect gentleman, a sensual yet chaste balladeer who championed the rights of his "sisters" between songs. He wrote and produced the 16 songs on "Waiting to Exhale," a rare Hollywood movie about middle-class black women, and he explores the love roller coaster from a similarly empathetic perspective. Sung by an all-star cast including Houston, Toni Braxton, TLC, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Chante Moore, Patti LaBelle and Faith Evans, "Waiting to Exhale" is a media event. But as an album it's an example of what's wrong with '90s R&B. While Babyface's notions are noble, his lyrics too often settle for cliches instead of specifics, and the arrangements are swathed in the kind of synthesized wallpaper that is turning black pop into bland pop. The terrific voices are immaculately framed, but with rare exceptions--Franklin's "It Hurts Like Hell," Blige's "Not Gon' Cry," a smoldering "This Is How It Works" by TLC, CeCe Winans' contribution to "Count on Me"--they never sound particularly enraptured. In achieving a dignified elegance, Babyface forgot about the soul.